The Wine Thread -- what have you been drinking?

I worked in a bunch of California wineries for years and no longer give a shit about it. All the magic is gone, and most of the people in the industry are completely full of shit - get them involved in a blind taste test and they'll make total asses of themselves. Most can't tell the difference between a merlot and a cabernet, truly.

That said, there's some cheap Penfold's at Trader Joe's that rules my world right now... $5.99 shiraz I think.

That would be the one. 2000 vintage I think.

Say, what is that stuff at Trader Joe's - Charles Something - we call it Two-Buck Chuck. What happened there? There must have been a bankruptcy or something... no Napa wine should sell for $1.99 unless there was some kind of trouble.

It's actually sort of drinkable, especially if it's the fourth or fifth bottle...

marsala ambra, colli
maderia verdelho
traminer
and a cold duck (whatever that is?)

I got ridiculously wasted on Cold Duck red champagne a few weeks ago and died to death at Emilymv's. Our boy Fudge who was over there coined the term "Quack Attack" to apply whenever drinking Cold Duck again. Which will never EVER happen ugh.

I think the rest of your choices are cooking wines!

Last bottle- Ca' del Solo Big House Red (actually by Bonny Doon). They were clearing out a bunch for like $7/bottle. Bonus factor-- SCREW TOP!

From the Canandaigua Wineries website:

"Cisco is a Beverage Dessert wine for people who like a strong, great-tasting sweet wine at an affordable price. Cisco is available in a wide range of flavors: Orange, Peach, Red, Berry, Black Cherry and Strawberry and in 375ml and 750ml sizes. All wines are offered in both 13.9% and 18% alcohol by volume..."

Search: Anything from Columbia Crest and esp. from Columbia Crest Grand Estates--lots of oak. The Chard and Maerlot/Cab table wines are on sale for 3.99 I think. The Grand Estates are more from 5.99-7.99

The French red Bourdeaux from Trader Joes are generally good. Chateau Haute Rozier is one, I think

I'm a little disaapointed with Trader Joe's Australian offerings, from the usual suspects, but I've found that if for a white, if it is blended w/ Semillion and for a red, if it is a blend with Shiraz, the cheap wine is brought up to drinkable.

2 buck chuck (Charles Shaw) is undrinkable swill. Bull's Blood is on the same level.

At Trader Joe's you do get what you pay for, and it is hard to get a decently drinkable table wine for less than 5.99. An exception is the Marques de Caceres White Rioja at 3.99 and occassional sales on Columbia Crest.

The Italian Bastardo (it's the only one Trader's has) is a pretty good deal for an ordinary pizza wines, but beware the Barolo, Barbaesco, Sangiovese, Cameneire. I would get these wines at a real wineseller like Rolf's.

The best under $20 Champagne/Sparking Wine is Domaine Ste. Michelle Extra dry7.99 and at a step up Roederer Estates NV 17.99 (the latter you will have to go to Costco or Rolfs for)

School me please people!

I really like Rioja, but after a couple of duds I realize I need a primer. Orbit?

i was looking at their schedule online today. i haven't gone yet, but it's something i keep meaning to do. tomorrow is australian wine.

oh i just had that last nite. nice

I'm drinking Renwood's sierra series zin from 2001 right now, it's decent but far from my fave. I love Peter Franus's zins, and highly recommend them if you can find them. I'm about to drink a 1997 Rosenthal Malibu Estates cab, and expect it to be fantastic as I had some about a year ago or so and it was getting really good. Had a 1997 Liparita cab from Napa a few days ago, great stuff. I'm running out of good wine though and have been falling back on the cheaper stuff as I am tonight, but cheap wines have been getting better lately.

Castle Rock cab is very very good for the money -- they're a Napa producer, but their cab is Washington fruit.

Jim, you sound like you're pretty into the Aussie stuff. I envy you getting to drink that Henschke -- sounds awesome. Have you Yalumba's unoaked chard? Very tasty.

I cant drink reds, I'm allergic :(

I wished I had a bottle of wine whilst watching Foopballers Wive$ last night but I did not :(

The label says J P Garrafeira 1995 Palmela. It's got some kind of D.O.C. style registration cert on the back. It's 100% Perequita varietal from Setubal peninsula, and I have no idea in hell what any of that is about, I've never had perequita. It's quite good. I think it's rather like a strong finishing Garnacha. You ever heard of this style Clarke? I got it on sale from a heavily raided case.

The question now is, what is the Miller High Life of champagne?

Orbit wrote: The best under $20 Champagne/Sparking Wine is Domaine Ste. Michelle Extra dry

Yes!! Yes!! It's never let me down. I can't think of anything even close (quality-wise) for that price. (Suggestions?)

Hunter wrote: At $11 Duck Pond Willamette Pinot Noir is a pretty decent, and obv. way cheap for PN.

Seconded! I was surprised...good stuff.

Also, there's a $5 Amontillado Sherry at Trader Joe's that's pretty decent for the price. That is, if we're counting fortified stuffs.

(Me? Good South African white. Gosh, that's a strange form of words.)

Columbia Crest Merlot/Cabernet $3.99 Woo-hoo!!!!! has withstood the multiple bottle test! A nice tobacco-y but smooth wine, it has pretty good body and mild tannins, great able wine! I am doing the wine dance now. *hop* *hop*

Orbit, inconsistency in most wine goes with the turf. I think I actually get more corked stuff than not. Go for screwcaps if you want consistency. Sadly, until the trade adopts them as an industry standard then you'll have to take your chances with most wines.

Next up to try is a bottle of '98 Tablas Creek Rouge -- Paso Robles Rhone-styled blend of mourvedre, grenache, syrah, and counoise. I've heard nothing but good things about Tablas Creek stuff, so I'm anxious to try this. Those southern Rhone varietals rock me.

Stolenbus and I are finishing up a bottle of 1999 Chateau Gueyrosse (St-Emilion Grand Cru) ($20 or so retail, but this bottle was a free sample -- thank you, job!), which has been extremely tasty. It's so nice to have a restrained, elegant wine once in a while. Everyone goes on and on about how BIG so-and-so California cabernet or Aussie shiraz is, and yeah it's fun to have a compeltely teeth-staining fruit bomb every once in a while, but come on. This wine has a soul, a personality -- it's there for you to talk to, to wonder about, not just to fuck.

When we woke up, I saw the bottle of wine. And instead of crying out loud in horror... I put it in the fridge, and we drank it that evening. Further proof that anything is nice just if it's VERY COLD.

I know what I'm doing. ;-)

I'm interested in the Trader Joe's phenomenon -- they seem to be extremely effective tastemakers. How many of you will buy something based solely on a Trader Joe's recommendation? How reliable do you find them in terms of finding good values?

Beer is more my everyday beverage; I tend to spend a little more on wines and drink them less frequently. I'd rather have an $18-$20 wine once a week than a $9-$10 wine twice a week. That's not to discount good value wines under $10 -- I definitely have my share of them, too -- but I think I've finally gotten my palate to the point where that extra bit of quality and complexity can make a real difference in my enjoyment of a bottle.

They usually come up with a good enough blend of 'hey, it's cheap to try' and 'come on, the description's just useful enough, isn't it?'

Trader Joe's carries a bunch of wines (100 or so?) from all over the world priced between $2 and $15. The thing is, none of them are really terrible. If it's sold at TJ's, then they've tasted it for themselves and will sell it, usually for much cheaper than at any other store. I don't think they're "tastemakers" or that I rely on their "recommendation", but if it's sold at Trader Joe's then it's probably drinkable and there's probably nowhere else to get it cheaper.

Related question, and pertinent to something I'm thinking about/working on right now: do you approach wine (and/or beer) with the same aesthetic rigor as you do music? In what sense? The more I learn about wine, the more I feel comfortable evaluating it aesthetically, even down to things like petty, playful disses based on the type of person who buys a given wine. Maybe this question deserves its own thread...

...when you meet up with all of us properly I HOPE AND TRUST.

The more I learn about wine, the more I feel comfortable evaluating it aesthetically, even down to things like petty, playful disses based on the type of person who buys a given wine.

! Are you turning into Christgau?

Gygax, you're probably kidding, but I've been thinking about stuff like that quite a lot lately!

Yeah, it's unreal - even cheaper than a Costco or something. I get Campari and Scotch there!

indie wine = bonny doon, who won my heart back in 97 with "le cigare volante". my half empty case sits there like demolition plot j-7, afraid to be enjoyed.

Anyway, this wine made me remember how amazing Pinot Noir can be. It was so deep, but the layers of flavor and nuance came through loud and clear -- if a heavy, rich California Cabernet Sauvignon is densely opaque, this Pinot is beautifully translucent. It's the Windy and Carl to Cab's Kevin Drumm. And the mouthfeel, holy crap -- silky but full, and you can hardly believe something so supple and soft could be in your mouth.

I know I'm not the only one drinking wine out there...

I've never been a big fan of the shiraz/cab blend, although I've had ones that have been pleasant enough. I feel like the two varietals hold each other down in a blend -- the shiraz, usually so a gregarious and juicy, is muted by the cab, whose austerity is compromised in turn by the shiraz.

Hitori Musume Junmainigori Sake - The most traditional and complex Nigori out there at this price (~$20/720mL).

Haha, nah, I that wine *is* really solid, although this time of year, my thoughts turn more towards the equally cheap and great Pacific Rim Dry Riesling...

As these inexpensive mongrel red table wines seem all the rage now, any other recommendations? I bought one from Washington the other day cos it was way cheap, it had something bad/corky going on...

I last had their riesling like 3 years ago and it was very tasty but that very well might be the ONLY reisling I've ever had.

Yesterday I saw--low carb wine. Fucking Fatkins.

Anyhow, check out their website. The place has a bizarre history and cool label art.

That is terrible news about Grahm -- what an amazing person. I hope things improve on that front.

Ed, Spain is an amazing source for affordable fine wines, especially right now. I hope they don't get infected by over-inflation like some areas I know (*cough* California *cough*). I could put together a mixed case for barely over $100 of just killer wines, both red and white.

This is one of those things that makes you amazed, thankful, and humbled simply to be alive, to have the faculties to be able to taste, to savor, and to think. Wines like this turn me into the biggest beverage geek ever. How something like this can come from the earth -- from vines, soil, wind, rain, sunlight -- boggles my mind. And, furthermore, how human beings have learned to guide, shape, and polish the fruits of the earth into something like this, this otherworldly liquid in front of me... I end up marvelling at the entire sequence of events, spread over eons, that brought this wine to my lips. And I feel almost a pang of guilt for being allowed to have something this amazing. I wish I could buy a bottle for everyone on ILX.

The wine is delicate but powerful, with good piercing acidity and a luscious body of pure fruit goodness. Goddamn, I love Riesling.

Alternatively, Sainsburys!

I haven't had a red wine for ages now I am going out with someone who DOESN'T LIKE IT, peon. I have decided! No longer will I compromise on Rosé! NO LONGER the White Zinfandel!! Red wine, red wine, COME TO ME, COME TO ME!

VINCENT POUILLY FUISSE 99
LES BOUCAULTS SANCERRE 01
CH LIVERSAN HAUT MEDOC 96

So you finally see her face at last, and the pain will never pass
You thought she was the only girl in the whole wide world for you
You can come on over
Cry on my shoulder, and drink
Broken-hearted wine
Tastes fine
In the spring time
Broken-hearted wine
Tastes fine

So you don't know what to do
There's just one cure for you
In spring time
When there isn't any reason
Or rhyme
To thinkin'
That you'll be mine
So come on over
Cry on my shoulder, and drink
Broken-hearted wine
Tastes fine
In the spring time
Broken-hearted wine
Tastes fine
In the spring time

HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE

HERE WE SIT ENJOYING THE SHADE, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
TO DRINK THE DRINKS THAT I HAVE MADE, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
TELL YOU WHY TODAY IS SUNNY, I’M IN LOVE WITH LIPS OF HONEY
WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE WAY SHE WALKS, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE

SHE IS COMING HERE TO STAY, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
I HAVE WAITED FOR THE DAY, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
SHE WRITES OF LOVE IN EVERY LETTER OTHERS HAVE TRIED BUT I WILL GET HER
WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE WAY SHE WALKS, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE

WHAT IS LIFE, WHAT IS SPRING, WHAT ARE ALL THE STARS THAT SHINE
LOVE MY FRIEND IS EVERYTHING AND LOVE WILL SOON BE MINE

POUR IT AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
POUR IT QUICKLY ONCE AGAIN, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
SHE’S HERE AT LAST MY ONE AND ONLY GOOD BYE FRIENDS AND DON’T BE LONELY
WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE WAY SHE WALKS, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE

BLINK YOUR EYES AND LOVE HAS PASSED, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
HER’S WAS NEVER MEANT TO LAST, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE
SHE INTRODUCED ME TO ANOTHER, NO MY FRIENDS HE’S NOT HER BROTHER
I WILL MISS THE WAY SHE WALKS, HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE

HEY BROTHER POUR THE WINE.

Red, red wine goes to my head,
Makes me forget that I still need her so

Red, red wine, it's up to you
All I can do I've done
Memories won't go, memories won't go

Life is fine every time,
Thoughts of you leave my head
I was wrong, now I find
Just one thing makes me forget

Red, red wine, stay close to me
Don't let me be alone
It's tearing apart my blue heart

Red red wine, you make me feel so fine,
You keep me rockin' all of the time
Red red wine, you make me feel so grand,
I feel a million dollar when you're just in my hand
Red red wine, you make me feel so sad,
Any time I see you go, it make me feel bad
Red red wine, you make me feel so fine,
Monkey back and ease up on the sweet deadline

Red red wine, you give me holy pahzing
Holy pahzing, you make me do my own thing
Red red wine, you give me not awful love
Your kind of lovin' like a blessing from above
Red red wine, I loved you right from the start,
Right from the start, and with all of my heart
Red red wine in an eighties style
Red red wine in a modern beat style
Yeah

Give me a little time, let me clear out my mind
Give me a little time, let me clear out my mind
Give me red wine, the kind make me feel fine
You make me feel fine all of the time
Red red wine, you make me feel so fine
Monkey back and ease up on the sweet deadline
The line broke, the money get choked,
Bunbah, ganjapani, little rubber boat
Red red wine, I'm gonna hold on to you,
Hold on to you 'cause I know you love truth
Red red wine, I'm gonna love you till I die,
Love you till I die, and that's no lie
Red red wine, can't get your off my mind
Wherever you may be, I'll surely find,
I'll surely find. Make no fuss, just leave us

He was killed by a cellular phone explosion
They scattered his ashes across the ocean
The water was used to make baby lotion
The wheels of promotion were set into motion

But the sun still shines in the summertime
I'll be yours if you'll be mine
I tried to change, but I changed my mind
Think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine

She lived alone in a small apartment
Across the street from the health department
She left her pills in the glove compartment
That was the afternoon her heart went

And the sun still shines in the summertime
I'll be yours if you'll be mine
I tried to change, but I changed my mind
I think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine
I think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine

I used to fly for United Airlines
Then I got fired for reading High Times
My license expired in almost no time
Now I'm retired, and I think that's fine

Because the sun still shines in the summertime
I'll be yours if you'll be mine
I tried to change, but I changed my mind
I think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine

Because the sun still shines in the summertime
I'll be yours if you'll be mine
I tried to change, but I changed my mind
I think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine
I think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine
Won't you have another glass of Mexican Wine?

"How old do you think I am," he said?
I said, well, I didn't know.
He said, "I turned 65 about 11 months ago."

I was sittin' in Miami, pouring blended whiskey down
When this old gray, black gentleman was cleaning up the lounge.

There wasn't anyone around, except this old man and me.
The guy who ran the bar was watching Ironside on TV.
Uninvited, he sat down and opened up his mind
On old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

"Ever had a drink of watermelon wine," he asked.
He told me all about it, though I didn't answer back.
"Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine."

He said, "Women think about themselves, when men-folk ain't around.
And friends are hard to find when they discover that you're down."
He said, "I tried it all when I was young and in my natural prime,
Now it's old dogs and children and watermelon wine."

"Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes.
God bless little children while they're still to young to hate."
When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line
About old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

I had to catch a plane up to Atlanta that next day.
As I left for my room I saw him picking up my change.
That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime,
Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things

(LEE):
I walked in town on silver spurs that jingled to
A song that I had only sang to just a few
She saw my silver spurs and said lets pass some time
And I will give to you summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Ohhh-oh summer wine

(LEE):
My eyes grew heavy and my lips they could not speak
I tried to get up but I couldn't find my feet
She reassured me with an unfamiliar line
And then she gave to me more summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Mmm-mm summer wine

(LEE):
When I woke up the sun was shining in my eyes
My silver spurs were gone my head felt twice its size
She took my silver spurs a dollar and a dime
And left me cravin' for more summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Mmm-mm summer wine

Does anyone else shop for wine at Warehouse, on Broadway near Astor Place? They seem to have lots of really good deals on California wines lately, especially red zins and syrahs. And in general their prices are significantly lower than anyone else in the city.

I pretty much only buy wines under $10 or $12, so these aren't high-end, but that goes pretty far at Warehouse.

Red zins: Blackstone, Ravenswood Napa, Kunde. They had Cosentino's "The Zin" 2001 for like $15, a really good deal, but they might be out of it.

Syrah: Steven Bannus, Terre Rouge, Qupe Central Coast. Smoking Loon is pretty good, too, and really cheap ($5 or $6).

I'll have to give Riesling a go. I think I only tried it once.
I've found I like White Merlot.

Also, had a great California cab the other day, it was Cenay Cabernet Sauvignon from the Blue Tooth vineyard, 2000 vintage. Very solid, nicely integrated tannins, plenty of tea, chocolate, and blueberry flavor, and significant length.

I am drinking an organic New Zealand pinot noir (Holmes Brothers Richmond Plains Reserve '00): smoky and cherr-y and quite good.

Currently my favorite is a Buzet. La Tuque de Gueyze 2000. A dry but complex red, not overbearing. Well worth seeking out, Nicolas have it for £7.95

I'm also Looking forward to the Michel Lynch 2000 Emma and Tracer brought me back form Bordeaux to give to my Dad for Xmas.

My Christmas dinner wines are:

The aforementioned Buzet
L'Ansierge 2000 Chablis
Mazér Inferno 2001 Valtelline Superiore (a close relation of one of my all time favorites, Nevers Pelaverga Inferno 1997)

For afters:

Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye
Chateau de Maniban Bas Armagnac

And on the side:

Guiness Original
Waitrose Strong Scrumpy Cider

I should be drinking some decent shiznit over the next few days, though, especially at my aunt and uncles - they decant, motherfuckers. And my folks still have some 1960s port left, though it dwindles every Xmas.

we managed a sauternes with starter, a chassagne montrachet (the dryest wine I've ever had) with the duck and more of the sauternes with pudding. We just opened a bottle of indie Champagne from Epernay, in fact I've got to get back to it......

because I'm poor
but hey

"It may surprise most southerners to know commercial wine making is a big industry, almost bigger than catfish farming"

I'm trying to warm up some cheese, what is your favorite/most effective method to bring cheese to 'room temperature' when you're too cheap to turn the thermostat above 65?

hahahaha

A really interesting and cheap red. Not as ascerbically dry as most Corbieres, probably from being a blend of no less than five grape varieties; Carignan, Grenache Noir, Cinsault, Syrah and Mouvèrde. I wouldn't think it would work so well, but there's a richness with some high dry notes that works very nicely. Next time I am in the area I shall visit the chateau.

Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages. This one is my favourite wine of all. Has been for awhile now. I've tried several other Beaujolais, too and it just isn't the same. Luckily this isn't the "nouveau" variety so you can get it year round, and it tastes much better than the nouveau stuff. It's about $8-13.

It was also good to note that after a few years of believing their own hype and producing over-fruited over tannic monsters the McLaren Vale is producing some good, balanced and juicy shirazes, I was starting to despair.

Still couldn't find a Pinot Grigio that made me do anything other than yawn, though. Oh well. If anyone comes across a decent one, do let me know.

An absolutely delightful wine, much more rounded than many others of the area. Delightfully drinkable.

If it's young, def decant for (if you're serious) an hour or so.

Currently lined up for the slaughter: Whites, whites and more whites:
2003 Rieslings from Reif and Flat Rock Estates.
2001 Gewurztraminer from Vineland (soon as I can make up some yummy indian food in this bloody heat).
2004 'Twisted' from Flat Rock, a white wine blend involving chardonay, riesling and gewurtaminer but more importantly tastes good in 40 degree humidex.

Also I have a bottle of red from the '70s, is this still going to be drinkable or is it more than likely godawful by this point? I don't think it was kept in the most ideal of conditions, ie it was my grandfather's.

...only if it's a really good, strong red (Cab etc.). If it didn't have a lot of tannin going in, it probably won't have kept. That being said: holding on to it longer will probably only make it worse, so... Nothing venture, nothing gained.

Dry Riesling = yummy.

Château Routas Rosé, 2005

For those keeping score: this move is called the Texas Sidepull.

They recently had an insane sale on McMannis Cab for $5.99/bottle, so we got a case of that. I've had a bit of that lately.

But I gotta say, I'm so constrained on the law school budget that this week I decided that I'd try for the first time one of the so-called "premium box" wines-- 3 litres, the typical range is $15 to $24 per. I bought toward the middle of the range-- Black Box Cabernet. Not terrible, but not very good. Thin, rather acid/sharp, no finish to speak of. On the other hand, it's not plain sour. Just sort of tolerable. I will probably try some of the Aussie Shiraz next. If anyone's got recommendations for this sort of table wine, I'm listening.

88 points from Robert Parker! He says, "Even better is the 2004 Naia, a tank-fermented and aged Verdejo offering loads of honeysuckle, lemon zest, and orange rind characteristics in a crisp, medium-bodied, surprisingly textured yet elegant, fresh style. Enjoy it over the next 12-18 months. (6/30/2005)"

Que bueno!

This is good stuff - we had a bottle a few nights back. Cost Plus used to sell it in the US, around $7/bottle. Another nice inexpensive italian wine is A-Mano Primitivo if you can find it.

We've been drinking Red Truck from Cline as a standard - about $8/bottle here, as well as various lembergers from Kiona and Covey Run.

Here's a weird one I liked a lot:

Medanos from Mendoza (but not Malbec, it's a Bonarda/Tempranillo) 2003 $8
really bright but full-flavored. jolly. I hate thick and jammy or overly oaked wine

generous!

we sampled seven different south african reds last week. they were all rubbish. never again.

This from the Splendid Table :

How Low Can You Go?
February 4, 2006

When it comes to cheap wine, Josh Wesson advises avoiding bottles more than three years old. "Age is not a virtue with cheap wine," he says. So just how low can you go? You won't go wrong with these picks from Josh priced well under $10.

• Chuck Shaw's Shiraz from Trader Joe's for about $3 a bottle. Skip the Merlot, Cabernet and Chardonnay.
• La Boca Chardonnay from Argentina is fresh, yummy, and also about $3 at Trader Joe's.
• Casa Solar Tempranillo from Spain for about $6. Get the youngest possible (2003 should be available).
• Viumanent, a wonderful Malbec from Argentina.
• Willow Glen non-vintage tawny port from Australia. About $6
• Barefoot Bubbly, a non-vintage sparkling wine from California, is one happy glass of fizz.

And with dinner at the best Thai place in the US, a bottle of QbA Josef Leitz Rudesheimer Drachenstein Dragonstone 2004 (Rheingau), which was perfect with all manor of spicy Thai flavors.

Buy one, get one :)

For UK buyers Somerfield has a great offer on Zonte's footsteps at the moment, the same superkarmet is also carrying a lot of Charles Back's stuff from the excellent Fairview winery (SA) the viognier is a peach-scented treat, and the Cotes rip-off an absolute stunner.

In other news, Morrison is stocking Condrieu now, seriously wtf? Condrieu? Twenty quid a bottle, mind, but worth every penny.

Can I recommend a buddy's microwinery Sutton Cellars? He's doing some badass odd grapes, unfined & unfiltered... I had a bottle at dinner the other night and it ruled: http://www.jugshop.com/newsletters/101404_web.htm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/lasrocas.jpg

Love Sanford Chard - about $20 a bottle. Their pinots ('02 & '03) are good too but a little pricy.

and two buck chuck syrah (trader joe's) is an outstanding wine for the price.

D'Alessandro Cortona Shirah som'thin' n'r'oth'r. It was OK: Dry'n'Red'n'not-so-bad.

I'm a veteran drinker, but for some reason had never tried Port. So I did. Barf-and-a-half. I mean, I drank it, but shit hombre, look up "cloying" in the dictionary and WHOOMP, there's Port. This stuff's Mad Dog 20/20 for people who live in houses.

I do think that it would probably be the perfect thing to drink sometimes, but only in moderation, and that just hain't me style.

Hell, while I'm talkin' about it, have you (or anyone) had any experience with Madeira? (Or Pink Gin, you Limeys). "Bitter's End" is my second favorite Roxy Music song and I've never had either. (Just so I don't come across like a total novice, I've had both Tennesee Moonshine and Slovak Slivovitz cooked up by relatives o' mine.

I like sauv-blancs too , though they always remind me of grapefruit soda.

http://www.liquorama.net/ProductImages/blackopalshiraz.jpg

http://www.cellartracker.com/labels/13992.jpg

http://www.globalwinespirits.com/wxvcfimage2?/THUMBNAIL|29061/Syrahjmcastro4722478.jpg

I will report my findings.

VIÑA SANTA EMA Syrah Cachapoal Valley Barrel Select 2003 (86 points, $11)

Nice violet aroma, with medium-weight flavors of plum, chocolate and spice. Good grip. Drink now. 4,000 cases made.

girl at wine store: "i feel like i'm drinking a peach!"

http://static.flickr.com/25/94254052_38bd92f369_m.jpg

Tres Ojos is a great wine, and you can usually find it for $6-7 a bottle. I also like Las Rochas, Charamba and Equis.

This stuff is my new summer staple, refreshing but complex, elegant but affordable.

If screw caps are good enough for the delectable Benton-Lane, they're more than good enough for me.

http://www.cellartracker.com/labels/10239.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/41/74607757_c71c2ce40c_m.jpg

http://www.mitolowines.com.au/images/wines/bottle_jes_shiraz.jpg

a Rhone knockoff. really pretty good for a cheap wine.

"Does it go with your cheeseburger?"

2005 Vitiano Rosé. Got a case for under $100.00. It's really quite good.

http://static.flickr.com/63/226953733_4d3fcac2ae.jpg

We also drank lots of different small brand champagne round about 16 euros, very tasty, and fairly cheap Loire reds and whites.

(Enjoy getting blowed, btw.)

xpost

I'm still adjusting my vocabulary, because growing up "applejack" meant something completely different that you'd never buy in stores -- unpasteurized, unfiltered cider allowed to ferment to its maximum, and sometimes strained of its sediment, about as alcoholic as a high-octane beer.

xpost -- the advice about homemade grenadine there is good, too, but I usually have to adjust the amounts of grenadine I use as a result (I'm also not very scientific about reducing it)

Looks like Laird's sells an aged apple brandy or two, and also cuts same with grain spirits to make their applejack. I used to get some Wisconsin (I think) brand that was freeze-distilled and quite delicious, if faintly toxic-tasting.

http://www.greenandred.com/label/03-ttv-zin.jpg

Argyle's 2003 Pinot Noir

http://www.argylewinery.com/online-store/scstore/bottles/RPN.jpg

Argyle's Nuthouse Chardonay is great, too - about the only white wine I'm willing to spend more than $20 on.

Tesco is selling an Amarone ("Rocca Alata") for £9.99 that is really drinkable - not incredible but it ticks all the boxes and is like almost half the price of any other decent Amarone I've found.

I'm really not enjoying establishments that have no european wines on the menu for those of us conscious of our food miles.

I had a bottle of marvellous English sparkling (the mighty Nyetimber) the other week. Rich, toasty, good mousse, ecologically conscious and tasty to boot.

We get syrahs pretty often actually, but I'm on a mission to find a pinot that's a bit less pricey than what we usually spend.

The burgeoning excellence of english vineyards is the sole crumb of comfort to be drawn from the whole sorry affair. The self-imposed liberal guilt driven personal ban on pinotage is a world of misery.

I've been checking out wine.woot.com once a week and have bought a couple nice lots from them (Pepper Bridge and Death's Head Red?). A bit spendier than our normal daily stuff, but excellent deals.

Might want to do a bulk order on some of the cheaper finds there, that bottle usually goes for $34 it says

Beaujolais Nouveau is not very good but it's light and goes down easy because it's just been put in the bottle (a French friend of mine claims that it is known sometimes as "vin de piss" because that's what you do afterwards but no one I've talked to since will back that up)

we'll see about this.

-- Euai Kapaui (tracerhan...), November 2nd, 2006 6:27 PM. (tracerhand) (later) (link)

:-/

i'll go for malbec this weekend.

a bit tannic for my delicate constitution, those aliens, but pretty great with the right food

nice menus!

Chateau de Puligny Montrachet Bourgogne Rouge 2004. I liked it a lot. It had that sort of herbal, grassy taste to it, but not too much and some fruit as well. The guy in the shop called it earthy.

Monte Degli Angeli Barolo 2003 - at $28 probably the only barolo I can afford - "brighten the corners"

that's a compliment

I fucking love Barolo.
Gigondas, this evening, I'm not entirely sold.

We had a fantastic wine at our first anniversary dinner - a 2001 Cavatappi Maddalena (nebiolo grapes). It's a Yakima Valley, WA wine and some internet searching suggests it isn't very widely available, unfortunately, but if you live in WA you should try to track it down.

Thanks for that Hurting 2, I'll see if I can find a bottle or two. We had thought about doing an eastern WA wine trip later this month, but are postponing due to moving house.

http://winehounds.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/55

This site has two Cavatappi wines. I can't order wine by internet anyway, being as I live in NJ.

I had a glass of 2004 Rock Rabbit Shiraz with dinner on Saturday. Really nice, full fruit tastes with some, but not a full measure, of the pepper and earth tones that the California Central Coast wines are known for. It went excellent with my bone-in strip cooked rare.

I think you can get bottles of it for under 15.

Hurting
if you're ever in Rockland,NY there is one of the best wine shops i'v ever been to there.

This Place
i'm only pimping this place cuz the guy is super nice and helpful whether it be a $10 bottle or a $300 bottle

beaujolais!!!

sorry, not that exciting

*jumps up and down*

Ok not really

http://www.winecountry.it/assets/articles/oursways/HPpinotNoir.jpg

At a wine tasting last night, I had:

Chateau du Pin 2004 (good Bordeaux)
Chateau Chapelle Maracan 2002
Blackneck Carmenere 2005
Xama Che Malbec 2003
Yarrawood Shiraz 2005

My favorites were the Chateau du Pin and the Yarrawood.

I am that rare sketchy dude who sticks to whites, even with heavy savory foods... reds always taste too young and undeveloped to me, unless I wanna spend $50+ which is never.

I want to buy a few (cheapish) bottles of wine while I'm in Israel next week to bring back to the States. Any recommendations? (Cheese, too. I hear there's a great cheese stall in the shuk.)

I really like Macaroni Grill brand Chianti, which I can usually get for like $12/ltr at my formerly local liquor store.

If you like white wines, look for Ken Forrester Petite Chenin from South Africa. Much like The Shins, it will change your life.

St. Francis Merlot, relatively cheap at $20 and is really nice.

Dude, New Year's was an embarassment of riches at the BLAM house.

Mrs. BLAM and I had a bottle of 2001 Opus One, and a bottle of 1999 Chateau D'Yquem. Fois gras, roquefort, steak, and asparagus along side.

That liquor bill would have been inching towards a grand, IF we hadn't recieved both as gifts.

You have some very generous friends, man. Damn!

Seriously. It was pretty great to recieve both of these within a short period of time.

any thoughts on portuguese wines? there's been a lot of stuff around the last few years, douro valley. i've had some pretty good bottles, but totally going on guess work with it.

I used to stock that Forrester Chenin, back in the day.

If you're off to Israel then you're not too far from Chateau Musar country. Now that's a beast of a wine, impossible to describe without starting to gush. Gaston Hochar also makes a slightly less nuts version, Hochar Pere et fils, which is less scary to drink and somewhat easier on the wallet.

xpost

I'm drinking a lot of Touriga Nacional at the moment, portugal is totally underrated

this blog post is interesting in re touriga nacional. (also i didn't know about the spanish wine shop he mentions, need to check that out.)

anything good at costco? my friend was telling me about the 2004 Léoville-Las-Cases, St-Julien (#6 in Wine Spectator top 100 wines for 2007, 95-100 points Wine Spectator, 90-92 points Robert Parker) but at $115, it's a little/totally out of my price range.

The best thing about wine is that it has its own way of coming down - namely, tannins - so you don't have to smoke. Not that I would ever want to. Chateau Commanderie Du Bardelet Bordeaux 2005. Did I get it all in the right order?

Not that I would ever want to, lol

well, who would?

then again, I don't know what 'coming down' means, here, not that I would ever want to.

answer to question, tonight: a bottle of Terres de Galets Cotes du Rhone. someone's got to do it.

wine snobbery is the dangerous borderland of ilx opinionating

I had a glass of 2004 Rock Rabbit Shiraz with dinner on Saturday. Really nice, full fruit tastes with some, but not a full measure, of the pepper and earth tones that the California Central Coast wines are known for. It went excellent with my bone-in strip cooked rare.

I think you can get bottles of it for under 15.

-- B.L.A.M., Tuesday, September 4, 2007 9:11 PM (6 months ago)

I've had some good experiences with this one. It's made up of excess grapes from some high-end vineyards and is a great deal when it works. (Same with Castle Rock.)

I found a good deal on 10 bottles of 2001 Failla Syrah from the Que Syrah vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. Parker gave this one an 85 and wrote a negative review, so winemaker Ehren Jordan stopped making it -- basically, instead of the rich jamminess of warm-climate Syrah it's got the green-olive sourness of a cool-climate Syrah. I love this stuff. Brought a magnum of it to dinner at Jaymc's place on New Year's Eve, and he's got the bottle on his mantle.

Chateau de Bonhoste Bordeaux 2004 - I think this is mostly Merlot. There is something that I would call cassis but I don't even know if that's the right taste that bordeaux wines that I like have which this wine has which makes me really happy overall after a day that pretty much sucks not because of outright horror but because of waste and attrition and lack of progress. Except I got Talking Heads 77 yesterday and that was really good.

on vynl?

I have been drinking Liberty School Central Coast Syrah. pret-ty, pret-ty good.

mas carlot marsanne-roussanne (with oranges!)

I lucked into lamb kabobs and an '85 Beaucastel.

Bargetto gewurtz on Sunday, some sort of 2006 house Rioja last night and 2/3rds bottle of Red Truck tonight. Beaucoups rosé (Fronton/Negrettes) in the fridge for if it ever warms back up outside. Also several different viogniers.

I am pretty sad the Red Truck bottle is empty ;_;

I read about honey served with ricotta in a Brooklyn restaurant. I had started eating ricotta again because that was the only kind of fat free cheese at Shaw's worth buying, and it was so much better than I remembered it. I thought it would have curds for some reason. Anyway, I got this Domaine Pichot Vouvray 2006 without knowing what Vouvray is and it was too sweet like honey so I thought of buying ricotta cheese again today and had it with the wine and it was really good. I had strawberries, too, but would have had peaches if they were ripe, but they are harvested rock hard for industrial farm production.

Saxon Brown Semillon 2006

some summer whites: assorted vinho verdes and sauvignon blancs (and the odd prosecco)
standby reds: assorted garnachas

http://www.lawineco.com/images/large/claude_riffault_sancerre_LRG.jpg

recommended

dadrza recommends St. Nicolas de Bourgeuil but sez is hard to find in us ;(

need to pick a good thanksgiving wine. not feeling the beaujolais vinegar.

http://www.wine.com/wineshop/product_list.asp?N=7155%201075&hid=HP_G_ThanksgivingWine&mode=xfer

my default cheap red has become the vinos sin ley garnacha line. i've only had the g1 and g2, but they're good.

anyone know the bogle wines? someone recommended them for a decent cheap bottle.

Finishing the bottle now:

http://www.mymelange.net/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/23/melini.jpg

Paul Autard Cotes du Rhone - highly recommended

<img src="http://www.klwines.com/images/skus/1033904x.jpg";>

http://www.klwines.com/images/skus/1033904x.jpg

man, I really liked the Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand

http://cache.wine.com/labels/94626l.jpg

was not impressed with the Biltmore Pinot

http://wineshop.biltmore.com/prodimg/020388.jpg

I like the David Bruce Pinot though

http://a3.vox.com/6a00c2251e17ae8e1d00fad69119630004-500pi

I still haven't had this years' Boojalace NewWaveOh

^^^ this is how it was pronounced to me and friends by our waitress at bistrot du coin one time

http://nomerlot.com/reviews/media/Rivola%20Sardon%20de%20Duero%202003.jpg

$4 malbec, u are a treat

http://www.winelegacy.com/Images/ItemBottle/20071024/astica-malbec_1.jpg

Finished a bottle of Posada Del Rey last night and enjoyed is so much I went online and ordered a dozen more this morning. It's a Rioja in all but name and compares well to most of the bottles I've had recently in the £8=12 range.

Having said that, It's not a patch on The Monasterio De Tentudia 1997 that I bought last year. I have 3 bottles, all which will be consumed over the Christmas period.

For cheap, everyday drinking, Domaine D' Aubaret Cabernet works out good value at around 60 quid for a box of 12 and my wife swears by Prickly Pear, an Argentinian white, which again, comes in at about £4.50 a bottle. it says "for everyday drinking" on the bottle so that's what she does.

Stopped using my local supplier (Stephensons) as the old cow in there is so deeply unpleasant, It became a real ordeal. I clearly don't fit in with her idea of a wine drinker and the fact she knows next to nothing, despite having been there for many years does the company no favours at all.

Tend to buy most of my wine online nowadays, although The Sunday Times Wine Club have been running some decent offers lately. For a big organisation, they have proved suprisingly good at sourcing, and re-sourcing, especially Spanish Riojas and Temperanillos so they are getting most of my business at the moment.

I tried Eiswien last night – it kind of tasted like grape juice. :(

I used to be picky. I'm not anymore. Why spend $10 or more when you can spend $5?

I used to be picky. I'm not anymore. Why spend $10 or more when you can spend $5?

― Bat Penatar (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 20 December 2008 19:14 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I think you can be picky and get decent wine nowadays. Some of the best wines I've had this year have been special offer 3 for a tenner at ASDA.

The trick is to find something you like and buy as much of it as you can afford. Wine experts talk shite most of the time and the ones in newspapers tend to be on the payroll of someone selling the stuff.

Having said that, an occasional really good bottle is a wonderful thing.

You bet it fucking is. I still sorta get hard ons when I see the words "Cotes Du Rhone".

I want to go to the planet where there is an endless supply of that. And never come back.

Bimble. If you join The Sunday Times Wine Club, do it for 1 reason only;

http://www.sundaytimeswineclub.co.uk/article.aspx?product_code=60425

Works out at just over 8 quid a bottle and drinks like a £20+

Revive, for the sake of the Santa Barbara Co. Vintner's Festival. Currently, doing some work on a brief, and enjoying a REALLY good syrah - Margerum '06 Colson Canyon Syrah.

Also, playing UB40/Neil Diamond really laoud. WONDERFUL Friday.

dudes bestow the wine logics

What's up, jd? I certainly won't put myself up as an expert, but I drink a good bit of good wine. I'm currently digging on some Central Coast syrahs - big fruit, big earth, really chewy. Where are you? what level of stuff do you have access to?

Chicago; not rollin in dough so access is mad limited. been on the mission to find wines me an my gurl dig south of the Alexander Hamilton. Recent expeditions have turned up http://www.redandwhitechicago.com/wine/spain/ProtocoloBlanco.JPGProtocolo 2007 - $9, Rioja Alavesas, Spain, Airen/Macabeo at this place

whoa dude that is a big ass picture, sorry

I'm a fan of the Spanish riojas. nice medium body red. Was that one good? Should I look for it?

dude it's a white wine with a touch of peach, citrus and minerality.

Grayson 2007 Pinot Noir $12 very good

This is best thing you'll ever taste with Phil Collins face on it.

http://www.avalonwine.com/PGC_dollar-bills-200p-5-05.jpg

Seriously though, this is the best Pinot I've ever had under $20.

my wife got me this as an early christmas present (except '04, not '01)

http://www.englewoodwinemerchants.com/product_images/AltVend.JPG

it's so good that it is going to make me feel sort of bad when i go back to my normal cheap wines tomorrow.

Ten Australian Dollars for d'Arenberg these days, thank heavens for the glut in the wine industry.

(Yeah, I know, but I am from McLaren Vale.)

grayson pinot noir again - a napa valley pinot - is this unusual?

That you're drinking it or that it's a pinot from Napa?

the latter

Not unusual at all.

It's unusual except for Carneros, which gets fog and cooler air from the Pacific -- the rest of Napa Valley is too hot for pinot. Even Napa Valley pinot producers (Robert Sinskey, Mondavi, etc.) get their grapes from Carneros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s89FqNpXO4&feature=player_embedded

henri clerc pinot noir 2006

Domaine de Lancyre Roussanne 2007

Was in Oregon a few days ago and bought a 2008 De Ponte DFB Estate Melon. A lot of whites I find either too astringent or too sweet, but this was pleasantly dry and smooth, with nice notes of banana and pear.

(At least it was at the tasting. Presumably the bottle will be the same.)

we got this in the fridge right now
http://www.thedinnerpartyshop.com/images/products/wines/champagnes/saraccoMoscatoDAsti.jpg

might not be the 'o6 vintage tho

Me an' Lincoln have been drinking turpentine. It was in a brown bag, so how were we to know?

hardcore

I've had this a couple times lately and it is unbelieveably good

http://www.frederickwildman.com/wildmansite/bottles/hugel/hugel_pinotblanc.jpg

Alsace, where the French and the Germans agree to disagree.

that alsace is good iirc

i had a discount rioja reserva yesterday which wasn't great, v lacking in fruitiness or anything engaging

Chateau De Vaults Domaine Du Closel 2005 Savennieres $16

"Chateau Des Vaults" - sorry. Also, "La Jalousie"?

Another winner from Alsace - Baron De Hoen Gewurztraminer.

I've been having decent luck picking French wines just based on how nice the bottle looks plus how old the winery is.

Domaine des Hauts de Sanziers Chenin Blanc 2008

Norton Ridge Pinot Noir 2007

Domaine de la Madone Beaujolais Villages 2010

Budini Malbec 2009

all the European wine around here is $3-5 more expensive than last year, cheap Rhone staples Parallel 45 and Vidal-Fleury are now like $12

Jean Marc Bernhard Pinot Noir 2009 from the Alsace $16

The perfect test for qualia would be tasting notes for wine:

cough syrup (in a good way! i am sensitive to sweetness): http://kermitlynch.com/page/2011-beaujolais-nouveau/
watermelon (but dry, minerals and granite, etc): http://www.rimauresq.eu/page_23/rose12

i wish i appreciated wine more than i do.

more lozenge than syrup because there is that tart sucking on hard candy taste. when i was very small i got very sick and couldn't take cough syrup; it made me gag. so that is the case for qualia and what you cannot recover in your own lifetime.

Robitussin, make me feel so fine
Robitussin, elderberry wine

crozes
pommard
bierzo
cotes de ventoux
some nz sauv blanc

Does the shape of a bottle say anything about the wine it contains? I am asking this question after attempting to divide a bottle into 4-5 glasses based on the height of the label (level after the 2nd glass?) and finding it works differently for French (feminine) and Spanish / Portuguese reds (masculine). Spanish reds were featured in a Lloyd Cole song. If he were to rewrite it today, I imagine he would tie Greek whites to the drachma or something like that ...

It does: Burgundy and new world pinot noir have a rounded shape; Bordeaux and its grapes (cabernet sauvignon et al) have a straight cylinder shape; and Rhone wines (syrah, grenache, mouvedre) have an even more rounded, shapely bottle.

But, with a few funny exceptions, they all hold 750 mL of wine.

high shouldered = bordeaux, rioja, chianti
low shouldered = burgundy, rhone, barolo mostly

then there are those slender alsace/german things that new-world riesling producers kitschily copy

Giant photo, but here are the four common shapes (forgot to mention tall/slim for riesling, gewurtz, etc. from Germany and Alsace):

http://www.windowonwine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bottle-shapes.jpg

traditional jura wines are still sold in some peculiar size like 620ml or sthing

I think I've seen those .. Please forgive the gender stereotypes ...

The shoulders are meant to capture debris when pouring the last of the bottle, so you see them on reds rather than whites.

the wikipedia page for vacqueyras is amusingly sniffy & embittered

Being a little brother of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and, arguably, Gigondas, the wine is moderately prestigious and can yield pleasing results when treated correctly.[2]

The best vineyards are found on Plateau de Garrigues. In the lowland, warmer temperatures result in more powerful and often inelegant wines.[2]

The red wine can be much like the wines from Gigondas but for some reason Vacqueyras rarely manages to match their northern sibling.[citation needed]

Vacqueyras is, like Gigondas, known for its power rather than its elegance.

G & V now seem ro be in a great place these days.

I almost never drink anything but cheap plonk, but lately when I want a wine with a reputable character I've been buying reds from the Cote du Rhone appellation, with invariably good results.

there is some excellent wine from vacqueyras and it's usually better than cheap chateauaneuf-du-pape

Trader Joe's has a cheap Cote du Rhone that I think is not bad. I think it's the one with a rooster on the label, in a kind of squat bottle.

i'll be visiting the states in about a week and will be visiting trader joe's promptly upon arrival. what bargain wines might you recommend, o ilx trader joe sommelier types? is that a proper recommendation for the roostery cote du rhone, or were you just giving it a backhanded compliment?

I don't know if they have this at Trader Joes, but Ravenswood 2009 Vintners Blend Cabernet Sauvignon is great value at around $9 per bottle. Very drinkable and balanced.

No, I do like the roostery CdR. I'll stop by again to see if that's an accurate description. It's about $6. I used to get their Black Mountain stuff, every varietal I tried I liked, and it was $5/bottle then. You'll have to try a 2 buck chuck, just to say you did. I "prefer" the Syrrah, but for all I know all the reds are the same wine.

I like the Casilliero del Diablo Carmenere, and a Bodega Norton Malbec, both $8.

Rooster-y Cotes du Rhone is La Veille Ferme--mass produced but from one of the Perrins, so related to the same family as Reserve Perrin and Chateau du Beaucastel.

TJs is good at having exclusives on $5-$20 wines, worth taking a chance based on the lengthy descriptions in the store. Wouldn't go for Two Buck Chuck or $5 pinot noir unless you're hosting an art opening.

good call o.nate - ravenswood was my go to cheap wine when i lived in california, you could get it at every corner store and supermaket in northern california for $7/bottle back then. highly quaffable. glad to know they're still putting out quality product! dunno if they have it at trader joes but maybe i'll see it somewhere

i've bought blindly at TJs before, never gotten anything undrinkable but some choices were definitely better than others

you know, there should be a rolling trader joe's cheap ass wine recommendations thread! i mean there's a lot of turnover/new products coming through, right? pretty much everyone i know loves tj's cheap ass wines, but not all cheap ass wines are equally good.

contributors could go all wine snob and rate the bouquet, finish, nose, discuss the composition of the blends and terroir etc, or just call out exceptionally awesome cheapie finds

The TJ's Caves du Fournalet Cotes du Rhone is the one I was thinking of. But the rooster one is good too.

http://www.cheapwinefinder.com/2012/09/2011-caves-du-fournalet-cotes-du-rhone-red/

thanks! off to tj's now and thought i'd check in, score. also, i can confirm that theirjunmai ginjo sake is v quaffable - if it's at all cheap i'll buy another one (tbh i stole that shit out of parents liquor cabinet and drank the whole thing in a day. yes i am 44 years old)

drinking a red st aubin atm

it's not that great, i don't think it's corked but it's quite astringent for village burgundy

I had a Maipe Malbec 2011 recently. Good value - nice balance of smokiness, fruit, astringency.

just wanted to point this out:

http://www.mnstatefair.org/_assets/pdf/competition/ahb_fruit_rs.pdf

page 6, Lot 001 Red grape table wine, 100% MN grapes

that's my dad's wine at #1 ^_^

'Good intensity with beautiful raspberry fruit. Good weight on the palate with a clean Pinot Noir purity, elegant with a good balance, finesse and long length. '

hmmmn

Also, the rooster wine actualy has a goat on it, but at some point it was a rooster, I think. And both are $4.99 here (LA area) rather than the $5.99 mentioned in the link I posted.

DJP: Your dad's wine as in a favorite of his, or one he's involved in making?

appelation minnesota contrôlée

how do you grow grapes in the american version of siberia?

OK, followed the link. Perry Vineyard! How large is the label, production-wise?

University of MN has an excellent agriculture dept all about creating delicious hardy fruits and vegetables to grow in the MN climate

Dad's vineyard is super small, with about 200 vines. He made about 30 cases of wine in the batch he submitted to the fair

in a fit of tightwaddedness i bought a bottle of 2 buck chuck: a charles shaw 2011 california chardonnay. it did the job and didn't taste revolting, but that's about all i can say about it.

also finally scored a bottle of j sparkling wine (the last one at whole foods) i've been looking for one since i had a really delicious bottle of the stuff back in '97, but this bottle tasted nothing like champagne - it was as if regular wine had become carbonated. not particularly impressed this time.

also, if you are going to try to re-enact the champagne blowjob scene from espedair street, i suggest you keep the bubbly at room temperature, not freezing cold, right out of the fridge etc

I picked up some Juan Gil Jumilla (Spain) yesterday. An earlier vintage got listed on one of those glossy wine mags in their "100 best of the year" roundup. It is very good and about $17. Vons supermarkets are having a 30% off everything sale with an extra 10% off if you buy 6 of anything, so I got it for under $11. Also picked up some Poppy Pinot Noir for about $8, also something I've had before and liked.

That one Vons I went to has a pretty impressive wine selection, with a special locked room where I could see $200+ bottles on sale. Never asked to go in, because that's out of my range.

Also a good beer selection.

Domaine Grand Cotes du Jura Trousseau 2010 (Jura, France): For some reason, my initial reaction was this wine tastes a bit like beer: I think my mother will like it. The Wikipedia entry for Jura wines states that yeast is used in the production of vin jaune. It is a light-bodied red, however, and has low alcohol content, unlike what is claimed in various Wikipedia entries.

vin jaune is aged like seven years in casks

that sounds like a pretty nice wine anyway, maybe like an alsace pinot noir or something? i would like to try more wines from places like jura and savoie

the other day i had some argentine malbec/syrah which was total dogshit and conceivably the worst wine in the world not containing antifreeze, assuming it didn't contain antifreeze

Malbec/Syrah sounds like a weird blend. I usually avoid those 50/50 blends - I had a Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay once that was pretty nasty.

The different wines that go into rose seem interesting together. For white wines, it seems the most you can do is to use sweet wines for effect. I think I've had good Semillon/Sauvignon blanc. I also remember liking the Qupe Marsanne Roussanne.

well semillon/s.v. is p. standard bordeaux shit; malbec/shirz is more like we don't know wtf we're doing

no it's like whatever the worst cheapest shit to bulk buy and sell we can stick in a bottle for something that costs barely more than the excise tax

usually different varietals are combined maybe 70:30 or 80:20, many of the famous bordeaux wines tend to be either merlot or cabernet sauvignon heavy, or better mendoza wines might be predominantly malbec with some cabernet sauvignon

it's less common to employ a roughy equal amount of two different wines, at least in the old world, though you might find it with grenache/syrah or grenache/tempranillo in southern france and spain, and in australia/chile/etc it tends to be pretty entry level stuff

The 2009 Dee Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty good value for about $12.

A friend gave me a bottle of Joseph Carr's Josh Cabernet, and it's really good, and seems to only run like $10-15 a bottle according to my searches.

Annabella Napa Valley Merlot also good value in the $10-15 range.

Also like the Nimbus Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (from Chile).

all of the rieslings

http://www.lerocherdesviolettes.com/IMG/arton17.jpg

http://static.wine-searcher.net/images/labels/58/69/txt-cellars-lol-riesling-qba-mosel-germany-10305869.jpg

xp!

all of the rieslings but not that one

is that a chenin blanc? i bought a vouvray sec the other week and generally like loire chenins a lot

Yeah, but they call it a pineau de la loire...

if yr in the uk there are some insane prices here but obviously everything is selling out quickly

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/bin-end-sale-morrisons-cellar-up-40-off-wine-from-2-99-per-bottle-free-delivery-1899020

wish id noticed this sooner cuz i would have cleaned out the ten quid meursault and six quid mercurey

Any recommendations?

virtually anything over five quid at >50% discount will be worth buying

like the st joseph there at nine quid is over fiteen euros if you go and buy it at the vineyard

Thanks!

Ended up getting half a case of an NZ Riesling because I rarely see decent Riesling for less than about nine quid and half a case of Henrys Drive The Trial of John Montford cab sauv which comes highly recommended by Robert Parker.

nice

ive ordered....a lot, this seems to explain why they are dumping stock, seems like a lot of the burgundy was gone even last night

hope the orders are fulfilled because i have never seen this sort of shit at this kind of discount, one of the californian wines was at less than half the price they are selling to domestic customers on their own website

this was the first one i tried and its p nice, oak aged single varietal sauvignon blanc which is fairly unusual even in bordeaux (possibly for good reason but it works well here), still in stock at £6

http://www.vivino.com/wineries/nederburg-estate/wines/the-young-airhawk-2011

Excellent. I might order some. Ended up going for a crate of the Laurenz Gruner Veltliner as well this week.

yeah there were two of those, ordered a few bottles of the residual sugar one and quite looking forward to trying it (at a third of the rrp too), dont remember having bought any austrian wine before despite all the hype it's got lately (its international rep having been destroyed by their habit of adding antifreeze back in the eighties)

I love Laurenz, and wish that the PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control) would stock it again.

this site i have never seen before has a couple of interesting wines half price wines relevant to the slovene wine asides in the other thread, a pinot gris from podravje in northern slovenia and a friulian 'sauvignon' from 5 miles inside the italian border which is described as a sauvignon blanc here although the producer doesn't specify which type. i suspect it's fine in any case. tempted to order some.

http://www.thedailydrinker.co.uk/product/112/2011_Sauvignon_I_Vini_di_Jacopo
http://www.thedailydrinker.co.uk/product/45/2009_Pinot_Gris

This seems good at £7 a bottle

http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/details/default.aspx?icid=Wine_HP_banner&id=283161102

drinking a very tired gran reserva rioja tonight
tesco had some excellent discounts on there that were gone very quickly earlier this week, a half price savigny premier cru, barolo, rijks shiraz
theres a discount code on winedirect.co.uk for £10
they sell a lot of shit but the other side of their stupidly large range of wine is that they inevitably mismanage their stocks and sell off good things cheap from time to time

http://www.winesdirect.co.uk/vouchers/

Was considering buying myself a bottle of something cheap & red yesterday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dylan introducing the Beatles to pot (after they couldn't honour his request for cheap wine) but had to work late and didn't make the liquor store in time

idk if i would generally advise buying chateauneuf du pape from obscure negociants but at £6 per bottle this is probably worth trying (despite the spiel delivery is free on the invoice)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/le-prince-du-logis-chateauneuf-du-pape-tesco-6-bottles-for-36-00-2081759

yeah probably not worth an awful lot more than £6 but good for drinking by the bottle during atlantic squalls

I've been collecting these natural wines from Mt. Etna in Sicily made from this eccentric Belgian dude named Frank Cornelissen. Not for everyone, but I'm enthralled with them.

Had two very good bottles of Amarone della Valpolicella last night.

Might try to pick up a couple of other Veneto wines if anyone has any recommendations.

this was one of the best white wines i had last year, they do another single vineyard cuvée which is slightly more expensive, both are distributed fairly well in this country afaik

http://www.inamaaziendaagricola.it/ENG/wines_menu_eng/e_vini_forcarino.html

which amarone?

Thanks.

It was a 2003 Bertani and a 2009 Allegrini, i think.

there's a wine from i think puglia called gratticiaia which is made in the same fashion as amarone, not cheap although less costly than those

im still going through stuff from that bin end sale i posted itt exactly a year ago

other than that a lot of marginal stuff, a couple of montsants (heavy garnatxa/carinena from catalonia), a nerello mascalese from the slopes of mt etna, a pinot noir from alicante (quite why someone would plant a grape from north central france there although it was just about alright), roter veltliner from lower austria, bucellas which is a white wine from near lisbon that was popular in london during the napoleonic embargo ('portuguese hock')

some barossa shiraz and some cote challonaise wines at the more normcore end of the scale

I've been collecting these natural wines from Mt. Etna in Sicily made from this eccentric Belgian dude named Frank Cornelissen. Not for everyone, but I'm enthralled with them.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, January 14, 2015 11:12 PM (3 months ago)

After years as a drinker of bourbon and beer, Mr. Murphy had his palate turned upside-down one afternoon in 2008 at Racines, a wine-obsessed spot in Paris where Mr. Chearno, his vinous Yoda, helped introduce him to a bottle of a Sicilian orange wine called Frank Cornelissen MunJebel Bianco No. 3, “which was so crazy,” Mr. Murphy said. “In my memory, there were leaves and twigs floating in it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/dining/for-james-murphy-of-lcd-soundsystem-a-brooklyn-wine-bar-is-a-switch-in-tempo.html

what does this thread think abt orange wine?

there was a single forlorn, slightly dusty bottle of croatian orange wine discounted by 50% sitting at the back of a shelf that i couldn't quite get the will to buy
could envision myself pouring it down the sink so didn't bother
there's a lot of dismissive comments about them from people who usually aren't reflexively dismissive, but i think more it's sense that even partisans seem to be saying they are really interesting
whereas would rather buy things that may or may not be interesting but will definitely be at least alright

towards the more normcore end of things, i had a bottle of pesquera del duero the other evening and thought it was excellent

I've only had two orange wines, and did not particularly like either of them. They are cropping up more and more on lists in DC restaurants these days and are generally $$$

Lately I am into Portuguese roses (which I like so much better than the average French rose) and whites from former Eastern Bloc countries! Yeah it is winter but this is what I'm drinking, so what? I can chill it in the snow.

I had a very good orange wine while on vacation in Croatia last year. I would like to try more.

Speaking of which, I wish there were more Croatian and Balkan wines available in the U.S. We had some really delicious wines in Dubrovnik that are hard if not impossible to find here. Even good U.S. wine stores in big cities might stock one or two at most. It's maddening to know there's so much good, inexpensive wine out there that never finds its way here.

And since I don't think I've mentioned it previously on this thread, let me give a shout to my favorite Spanish label, Lopez de Heredia. Also hard to find in the U.S., but I've come across it here and there. Even the cheaper Cubillo is very good, but if you can spring for the Tondonia, highly, highly recommended. One of those wines that really needs to breathe and open up before you drink it -- otherwise you'll get a mouthful of dust and wonder what I'm talking about.

Lately I've been buying the Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1.5L bottles for something like $9 a pop. Crazy cheap, and tastes pretty good.

I brought home a Spanish orange wine from a vacation about 15 years ago. I was intrigued at the time, thinking it was a fermented orange/grape mix, but I later read that citrus is too acidic for yeast, so the orange was likely added later. Too sweet, and not very good really. It took me several months to finish it.

the orange wine itt is white wine that sits on grape skins for a while, giving it an orange colour.

quite a few new restaurants here in sydney now have an orange wine section on the winelist & i really like them... they're not any more expensive than other wines, but i think that's because a lot of the young australian 'natural' wine makers enjoy making them.

OK, I've never heard of that, outside of "white zin" type abominations.

the orange wine itt is white wine that sits on grape skins for a while, giving it an orange colour

I thought that was how rose (imagine an accent over the e) is made. Is there something different about the process that makes it orange rather than pink?

wikipedia says -

This winemaking style is essentially the opposite of rosé production which involves getting red wine grapes quickly off their skins, leaving the wine with a slightly pinkish hue.

OK, so rose is red wine grapes with a brief exposure to the skins, whereas orange wine is white wine grapes with a long exposure. Interesting. Will look for it maybe when the weather gets warmer.

Somehow we wound up with a half bottle of Rose -- I literally do not remember how we got it, but I didn't feel like drinking a beer so I said fuck it and poured it. The brand is Schlumberger, no idea if this is good. It's kinda ok but kinda weird, like something vaguely pukey about it compared to other sparkling wine. Anyway tastes like something I should be drinking at some high class party and not alone in my apartment.

Schlumberger is some pretty high-end ish out of Sonoma County. Probably not too sweet. Enjoy it.

What he drank came neither from the decent-to-good (Cabernet especially) Michel-Schlumberger winery in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley, named first for the Swiss banker and oilman who founded it in the late '70s and second for his later partner and ultimate owner, a Texas-born Californian descendant of the old French wine family (not sure whether a connection to the Houston-based multinational oilfield services company of that name), neither of whom was the winemaker or is involved any longer, nor from that family's much better-known Alsatian estate winery Domaine Schlumberger, which makes some very well-respected Rieslings and Gewurztraminers and is probably what "Schlumberger" means to most wine people, but from the Austrian mass producer (and therefore "brand") of sparkling wines named for the country's first such, who founded the company (now GmbH) in the mid-1800s.

the charles shaw at TJ's is pretty decent this year

That was a really enjoyable sentence to read.

"something vaguely pukey about it compared to other sparkling wine"

butyric acid... sometimes it goes away with age, but it's probably the most oft-putting off flavor.

Yeah, in sum it was fine but not something I'd seek out again.

the charles shaw at TJ's is pretty decent this year

― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, April 26, 2016 9:01 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like when people call it "TJ's" because it always makes me think of "Like a Sunday in TJ, it's cheap but it's not free."

Charles Shaw makes an awesome Riesling for under $12ish. I think it's called Kung Fu Girl.

Other awesome inexpensive Rieslings (dry) Hermann Wiemer and Ravines from the Finger Lakes and Leitz Ein Zwei Dry from Rheingau.

imo riesling just tastes like sparkling sugary white grape juice

which I mean, it kind of is, but I don't really need that

yeah way too sweet for me

Charles Smith (better than Charles Shaw) makes Kung Fu Riesling and lots of other good wines. Also can appear high as a kite in person.